Illumine Investment Management LLC Makes New Investment in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Illumine Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 2,682 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $784,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Creative Planning grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 1.2% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,811 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,050,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 3,552 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $978,000 after buying an additional 240 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,498 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $3,717,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $397,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 40.0% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 19,512 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $5,783,000 after purchasing an additional 5,575 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on AYI. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $299.19 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.03, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $316.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $299.65. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.64 and a 12 month high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.72 EPS. Analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.23%. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.01%.

Acuity Brands Profile

Acuity Brands, Inc provides lighting, lighting controls, building management system, location-aware applications in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Acuity Brands Lighting and Lighting Controls (ABL); and the Intelligent Spaces Group (ISG). The ABL segment provides commercial, architectural, and specialty lighting solutions, as well as lighting controls and components for various indoor and outdoor applications under the A-Light, Aculux, American Electric Lighting, Cyclone, Dark to Light, eldoLED, Eureka, Gotham, Healthcare Lighting, Holophane, Hydrel, Indy, IOTA, Juno, Lithonia Lighting, Luminaire LED, Luminis, Mark Architectural Lighting, nLight, OPTOTRONIC, Peerless, RELOCWiring Solutions, and Sensor Switch.